Navigating an Evolving Landscape: The Shifting Dynamics of Global Student Mobility

• In Event: Education, Identity, and Peace in Marginalized and Conflict-Affected Contexts

Proposal

Purpose of the Study
The increase in armed conflict, political instability, poverty, and other world crises is forcing an unprecedented number of people to leave their native homelands, and flee to other parts of the world as refugees (Arar et al., 2020). Some refugees abroad who want to enroll in higher education or simply continue their education are choosing to become international students, rather than applying for refugee status, thus creating a new diaspora of students. Using a scholarly personal narrative approach, this study shares the story of one such individual who chose to become an international student to pursue U.S. graduate education and addresses the following research question: How does a nation’s immigration regulations influence ones’ decision to become an international student versus other statuses? The study reveals how a student from Eastern Europe navigated her transition to U.S. higher education; overcame the hardships of being an international student; and persevered through her degree program. This research advances understanding of an emerging diaspora of people whose situations do not reflect traditional notions of student mobility and their access to higher education due to geopolitical factors (Cerna & Chou, 2023).

Theoretical Framework
The stories and experiences of people who migrate to other parts of the world are unique and may not fit within the constructs of traditional empirical research studies. Scholarly personal narrative (SPN) can serve as a theoretical exploration and a way to confront these experiences in a “creative, honest, first-person voice, and with scholarly rigor” (Hyater-Adams, 2012, p. 39). Mendoza (2022) asserts that SPN “frames personal narrations within existing knowledge and with rigor” (p. 3). She explains that narratives are “personal, because the source of data is the self” and it is narrative because “it tells a story with a clear goal and purpose” (p. 3). SPN offers counter narratives to traditional scholarly paradigms that are often upheld in academia, and unintentionally disenfranchise marginalized populations (Nash, 2004). By intertwining individual lived experiences with academic rigor through in-depth interviewing, SPN empowered the participant in this study to share her story of choosing the path as an international student in the United States (Lincon, 2021). SPN also serves as a pretext for looking more deeply into the larger dimensions of migration and immigration, such as problematizing legal classifications and the notion of identity/belonging within higher education (Nash, 2004).

Methods of Inquiry
Data was collected through an in-depth interview with an international student from Eastern Europe pursuing a graduate degree in business. The interview instrument was divided into five sections, based on SPN constructs: (1) outline your story; (2) specific experience situated in the overarching issue; (3) larger implications; (4) why am I telling the story; and (5) future implications. The interview was conducted via Zoom and lasted 180 minutes. The interview transcript was transcribed and uploaded to Atlas.ti for analysis, which involved a re-reading of the text several times, guided by the five bracketed constructs of the SPN story arc as “an interpretative framework” (Yost et al., 2015, p. 165). A combination of Polkinghorne’s (1995) paradigmatic and narrative mode of analysis was employed, and consisted of a more traditional qualitative analysis for themes in the participant’s story. During the first cycle of coding, a combination of structural and content-based coding was performed within Atlas.ti where segments of data were coded and categorized, followed by a descriptive coding process as a means to provide an inventory of the codes/topics (Saldaña, 2015). In the second cycle, a form of pattern coding was performed to “pull together a lot of material from first cycle coding into more meaningful and parsimonious units of analysis” (Saldana, 2015, p. 236). After the paradigmatic analysis was conducted, a narrative mode of analysis was performed, which sought to preserve the participant’s story. The story arc served as a tool to guide the narrative and by placing the individual themes that emerged throughout the coding process onto the arc.

Findings
The narrative analysis revealed the following story arc:
Needing to travel: In thinking about her education and career goals, just as armed conflict erupted in her region, the participant decided that “the U.S. is the best place to study” as an international student, since a humanitarian refugee program would not allow her to return to her country and see her family. Immigration policies and life choices: Being an international student in a foreign country means “you cannot work”, but the participant chose this route for the “ability to travel around, instead of being stuck here [in the U.S.]”. Larger implications: The participant expressed that “granting refugee status is not enough, they have to grant opportunities”, “there needs to be more flexibility”, and “long- term career pathways for different situations and needs”. Education as a public good: The harsh reality is that as an international student, “U.S. employment restrictions” affects one’s life and education. Hope for the future: The participant found that “people who do not speak English” and have degrees from other countries “will not go far”. She emphasized the need to expose the myths about refugees, and remedy the disconnect between immigration policies and the ways they affect the lives of both international students and refugees.

Contribution
This study extends the research on higher education and migration by employing the SPN framework and suggests that education and student mobility is inextricably linked to human safety, survival, and career mobility (Brunner et al., 2023). The study revealed that one’s sense of agency, career goals, and a nation’s (im)migration regulations, heavily impacts education attainment in another country. The significance of this study is that it sought to shed light on an emerging diaspora of people choosing to become international students versus other statuses––based upon the policies and resources that go along with it. In line with the CIES 2026 theme, the study amplifies new theoretical perspectives and research on emerging issues to re-examine education in an increasingly divided world, and the ways universities can help to uphold justice, social cohesion, and global peace especially among globally mobile students.

Author

• Anita Gopal, American University